[I]n exchange for lower emissions of CO2, which is a
pollutant based on politics, not reality, and is such a
weak greenhouse gas that man's puny contribution can't
possibly have any effect on climate, we'll have more
death on the roads.
Clown Cars
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
Monday, April 20, 2009 4:20 PM PT
Regulation: The Environmental Protection Agency ruled Friday that carbon dioxide is a pollutant that must be regulated. Many are willing to pay the economic costs. Will they be willing to pay in lost lives, too?
There are a number of CO2 sources, mostly natural. But Washington can more easily — and eagerly — control human sources, which are roughly 3% of all carbon dioxide emissions.
Unless Congress steps in with a legislative plan, unelected bureaucrats will have the authority to set caps on CO2 emissions on electric utilities, energy companies, airlines, cars, trucks, schools, hospitals — anything that releases carbon into the atmosphere.
To reduce carbon emissions in automobiles, the carmakers will be forced to build more fuel-efficient cars, which means they will have to build more of the small cars they already make, increase the number of small models in their fleets or shrink their full- and midsize offerings.
Any, or all, of those options will please SUV-hating environmentalists — that is, with the possible exception of those who lose their lives when traffic fatalities due to automobile downsizing inevitably increase.
Smaller cars are more dangerous cars. Both common sense and the data tell us this.
The federally mandated current corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standard, at 27.5 miles per gallon for passenger cars since 1990, is deadly enough.
A 2002 study from the National Academy of Sciences determined that "the downweighting and downsizing that occurred in the late 1970s and early 1980s, some of which was due to CAFE standards, probably resulted in an additional 1,300 to 2,600 traffic fatalities in 1993."
It can get worse.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has determined that in front-to-front crash tests, microcars, or minicars, fared poorly.
In collisions with midsize cars, not SUVs or full-size cars, these toy-sized automobiles "do a comparatively poor job of protecting people in crashes," says institute President Adrian Lund.
"Crash statistics confirm this. The death rate in (one- to three-)year-old minicars in multiple-vehicle crashes during 2007 was almost twice as high as the rate in very large cars," the insurance group said.
"The death rate per million (one- to three-)year-old minis in single-vehicle crashes during 2007 was 35 compared with 11 per million for very large cars. Even in mid-size cars, the death rate in single-vehicle crashes was 17% lower than in minicars."
So in exchange for lower emissions of CO2, which is a pollutant based on politics, not reality, and is such a weak greenhouse gas that man's puny contribution can't possibly have any effect on climate, we'll have more death on the roads.
Is this the trade-off that the country should be willing to accept? Do we really want more of these minis and micros being knocked around and crushed by bigger automobiles? Are we willing to see these cars lose deadly battles with utility poles, guard rails and concrete walls?
At some point, owners of so-called Smart cars who bought them thinking they were saving the environment or wanted to make a trendy show of their environmental sensitivity to their neighbors will have to admit that those cars are really not so smart.
Arguing that safety would improve if everyone had a small car, as some will do, is nonsense. It would take decades of authoritarian government decrees to replace all the larger automobiles on our roads, which will still be used by trucks and the buses that environmentalists want to cram everyone into.
Already the Obama administration has announced that the CAFE standard for cars and trucks combined will be boosted in 2011 to 27.3 mpg, nearly 8% (two mpg) higher than the 2010 standard.
Expect it to go far higher if the EPA begins to regulate CO2. And then expect the automobile death toll to increase as well.
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